Sono Stanchissima!!!!!

Three days of school. Feels like it's been three weeks. Actually not. At all. But I am TIIIIIIIRED!!! I have ten very very wonderful students who can also be very VERY difficult. And camp is very very loooooong. I am always exhausted by the end but that's not really the problem. Just to be exhausted is fine. The really tough part is that while I'm exhausted I have to entertain and motivate ten exhausted kids. The kids run around and play games for sooooooo long that by the last hour of the day all they want (and all they need) is to take a good solid nap. But NOPE it's time for sports!!! Oy.
The other really tough thing is (obviously) these kids don't speak English. So even if I come up with a very good idea for an activity I sometimes find out that it's just going to be impossible to explain in a game of desperate charades so I have to improvise very quickly and give them something new and easy and fun and educational to do. VERY quickly because 10 seconds of dead air or any sign of uncertainty on my part generally means that all hope of control is lost for at least 10 or 15 minutes.
But DAMN these kids are cute. Ohhhhh my goodness. And even after the first three days they're starting to pick up more English. It's the most gratifying thing in the world to hear them singing the songs I've taught them when they are running around at recess or painting in the Workshop.
Today the kids played "dodgeball" although I think in this case it could be more appropriately called "unrestrained chaos" but that's a different story. Anyway, while they were playing, Giacomo fell down and hit his chin on the floor. I ran over and helped him up and as we were walking out of the fray he held on to me and kept repeating in Italian "Ow. Ow. The Giacomo fell down. The Giacomo. The Giacomo fell down. Ow."
Mattia is a really sweet kid who is just a little too immature for this camp. He doesn't really understand the concept of rules and class activities and the meaning of the word "no". He can be really crazy sometimes and especially when he and Francesco get together it can be bad bad news. They seem to be the two youngest kids in the camp so they are both a little unruly, and they are best friends so together they can make the whole class descend into utter chaos in seconds if I'm not constantly watching them.
They are both extremely cute though and once in a while they can be really sweet and cooperative and take a sudden interest in English. They are a bit behind most of the other students as far as vocab goes so they are much better with one on one time but unfortunately I don't have the luxury of being able to give them that very often.
I get along with the other tutors well, especially Christina. She has the age group just above mine so we work together a lot of the time. She is a good teacher and has a lot of good ideas.
The night after the first day of school I went with all the tutors down to il Duomo in central Milan and we watched the Italy-Paraguay World Cup game on a giant screen in a giant crowd of
Italians. Exhilarating to say the least. That's absolutely the way to watch a soccer game. It might have been a little more exciting if it hadn't been a 1-1 tie. But it was still really fun.

Soccer at il Duomo.
The picture of my class with the most visible faces. Left-Right, Back-Front they are
Leo, Valentina, Alice, Giacomo, Luca,
Irene, Mattia, Mario, Gabriele,
Francesco
The Anemoni Tutors: Me, Eanna, Fatma, Christina, Dervla, Tara